Aesthetics of Excess: The Singing and Dancing of Pey in the Folktales from Karisial Kadu

TLDR: This paper explored the singing and dancing of pey, a dual spirit (benevolent and malevolent) found in the folktales from Kaṟisial Kadi (the area around Tuticorin district in southern Tamil Nadu, India) as embodying aesthetics of excess.

Abstract: The article explores the singing and dancing of pey, a dual spirit (benevolent and malevolent) found in the folktales from Kaṟisial Kādu (the area around Tuticorin district in southern Tamil Nadu, India) as embodying aesthetics of excess. The tales have been collected by Ki. Rajanarayanan in Naṭupuṟa Katai Kalañiyaṃ (repository of folktales). Although a dual spirit, pey belongs to the sacred in Kaṟisial Kādu. The divine world of Kaṟisial Kādu populated by folk deities conceptualizes sacred differently from the scriptural religion and its pantheon of pan-Indian deities. This divide in the divine world becomes apparent in an aesthetic that characterizes the singing and dancing of the pey in these stories. As a response to and a manifestation of an excess it disturbs composure and does not fit into the controlled and transcendental aesthetics of Nāṭyaśāstra. The paper studies this deviant aesthetics associated with the singing and dancing of pey and its function in Kaṟisial Kādu through the lens of the Nietzchean category of the Dionysian.